ACT-I-VATE, the LiveJournal based webcomics co-op has gotten much press and attention, and just released a "Fall Line-Up" graphic that shows why it’s become a mini-sensation. They are also looking for a Web guru, as Dan Goldman posts on his LJ

Are any of you out there geniuses in WordPress/etc that would like to BE PART OF ACT-I-VATE? We need a dedicated web-genius to collaboratively design the upcoming www.act-i-vate.com and then maintain the mothership for us as an integral part of the family, keeping our ship in the air no matter how heavy the storm. And NO, this LJ isn’t going away; it will be part of ACT-I-VATE forever as you are all are lifeblood… but LJ confuses alot of people who would otherwise enjoy our work as we step it up to a new plateau for 2007.

I am web/HTML/WP-literate (as are a handful of the others) but I want to make our web-based home something really new (a supergraphic daily online comix anthology) and I’d love for us to work with someone far smarter than any of us. We’ve got ideas and sketches already but our monkey hands can’t handle the tools. You being in the NY area is naturally a plus so we can bond, be friends and work together on this stuff. Remember, this machine runs on love so we start this quest with you guys who already love us.

We are at a crucial point in the evolution of the medium and you will have an integral part in forging its future here; we ain’t just fucking around. Sound off in the comments field with links to your samples or email us directly; we are waiting for you.

In a more disturbing ACT-I-VATE story, Dean Haspiel relates how he discovered that Photobucket was censoring his comic, IMMORTAL:

My free image hosting carrier, Photobucket, started censoring some of my images from my weekly web-comic, IMMORTAL [at [info]act_i_vate]. Current episodes show nudity and what I would consider to be artistic ‘love making’ sans pornography. Discovering deleted images from my posts surprised me and I was forced to host them elsewhere [thx to [info]4_eyez for helping me out at the 11th hour]. I searched the terms of service and I guess some of my work would be considered ‘obscene?’


The idea that someone at Photobucket is actually sitting around checking the gajillions of images that get posted to make sure that a lyrical image of naked women don’t go out is creepy, to put it mildly.

1 COMMENT

  1. I’m not suprised actually. Biff, esteemed publisher at Red Flag Publishing, had his advice column http://whatwouldbiffsay.blogspot.com/ suddenly turn up missing. Seems someone at Blogger pulled the plug on it- we can only guess that it’s because he was sometimes borrowing questions from other advice columns including Slate’s Dear Prudence columns and providing obviously bad advice in an obvious parody of advice columns. Now, Biff believes this falls under the First Amendment protections and the rights of satirists, etc. but in today’s America corporations can do whatever they want and no one cares because, after all, you can always go somewhere else… until there IS nowhere else anyway- at which point we’ll all be so used to being told what to do by the companies and government created to serve us that no one will even remember that they should be outraged.

    I should also add that it wouldn’t be quite so bad if the company would AT LEAST send you an email explaining the action taken and the reason for it and what, if any, options you have to object or appeal but they don’t even bother. And if you’re going to argue that they don’t have time to do this then how do they have to censor it in the first place? And yes, I understand it’s a “free” service, you sign the agreement, blah blah blah… but have we really gotten to the point where people don’t see why someone might object to not even being alerted to having your content suddenly disappear down the memory hole without warning?